Software Development Partner for Car Services Marketplace

System structure

Cloud server
Web application
Mobile adaptive
Landing page

Services

Backend development
Frontend development
Product design
Research
Project management
QA
Consulting

Industry

e-Commerce

Timeline

7 months

Team composition:

Liliya, Software Engineer

Valentine, Software Engineer

Lena, Project Manager

Anna, UX/UI Designer

Vadim, Software Engineer

Slava, QA

Technology stack used:

What is a Car Services Marketplace?

Regarding development marketplaces in the automotive industry, apart from the car rental marketplaces, there are also avenues where drivers and car owners can source expert mechanics: auto repair centers, private specialists, etc.

Aggregating several businesses in one place and allowing users to narrow their searches using specific filters is rather convenient. Car services marketplace development and release in the automobile industry would also increase revenue generated through automotive services. That's why technology penetrates the automotive market, and this car services marketplace example is especially valuable.

Having considered our experience in developing interactive mobile applications and web applications, our client reached out to our team to order the development of the car services marketplace. During the consulting session, the client shared the idea of applying technology in the vehicle industry: the UAE-based car repair shops would be connected with car owners. By doing this, he wanted to ease the search for car repair and help shop owners to attract new customers.

No doubt, car owners would prefer to choose a suitable automobile service from a marketplace app. So, We were excited to work on this very new concept of a car services marketplace.

Initially, the project envisioned a web application to be developed from scratch. Also, Celadon was to develop the car service app design and integrate libraries. We get the marketplace app development going with MVP development. But when the MVP was launched, it got clear that 80% of the traffic was coming from mobile devices. The client decided to develop a mobile version of the automotive management software.

However, our developers faced difficulty when developing the adaptive: the used library did not allow for making a high-quality adaptive, and it turned out to be not stable.

Without deliberation, we decided to customize the mobile version. That is to develop its additional design and then lay it all out.

On top of that, we designed and developed a landing page (design and layout), which gathers users and leads them directly to a web app.

Besides, the customer side was required to allow users to watch their service history and view all their appointments. At the same time, the car repair shop profile was to display a built-in appointments calendar and all payments and funds earned.

Anna, UX/UI Designer

Car Service App Design

Our clients wanted a lock, stock, and barrel:

Functionality-rich app
Catching elements
Space and intuitive UI/UX design

We spent hours researching similar websites and applications and eventually had several car service marketing ideas in our pocket. We offered multiple options to create a car services marketplace. The client chose the most suitable one and was happy with the car services marketplacethey got as a result.

When contacting us, the client had a detailed business idea to create a car services marketplace and developed wireframes.

Design

Anna, UX/UI Designer

Colours

Typography

Anna, UX/UI Designer

Actions Taken to Build a Car Services Marketplace

We had been communicating with the customer extensively. Before setting off the development, we clarified all the business details. In teamwork, we developed the structure of all the interactions and all the terms.

We ultimately developed the design from scratch and build the DB structure and interconnections.
We suggested ways of solving the problems with payments and failures
We provided a lot of advice on the implementation and prevention of all possible error cases in the future.

In the end, we got a flawlessly working product in which all the customers’ requirements and wishes were implemented.

Innovative Car Services Marketplace Ideas

Databases

The most complex challenge we faced was the work with Databases. The marketplace of car services was necessary to be configured in such a way that depending on the selected car, configuration, and mileage, the user was offered exactly the services they needed. Also, leaning on car configuration, car repair shops set their own prices for services. Loading the data into the database manually delivered hard times. To build a car services marketplace, the client had to collect a complete database of cars, prices, and services. They supplemented it gradually by sending us file after file. Very often, the files contained errors and inconsistencies. We developed a template for filling these files to avoid breaking the system. After that, we began to develop functionality for uploading and editing these files directly from the application. To make this process smooth, we made up a convenient table-free layout so that we could correctly substitute all the values in all the tables.

Payment integration

Car services marketplace development put us in front of another challenge—payment integration. In order to make the marketplace payment safe and trustworthy, It was necessary to take into account all the possible cases in which a shop could lose money. For example, such a situation may arise when the payments are carried out only online. Those cases were to be prevented without affecting users and set in a way so that the user would pay only after the completion of the service.

Service history and all the appointments

And last but not least, we wanted the app to be as much comfortable for users as possible. A large number of interconnections makes it challenging to fit a massive amount of functionality into a light, straightforward, and non-intrusive car services marketplace design that would not scare away the user.

Lena, Project Manager

Marketplace Concept In the Automotive Industry

4 user roles (guest, registered user, repair shop, and admin) with different leeway and functionality
User dashboard that looks like their garage fitted with services history and all the cars info
Opportunity to set location and filter workshops by this value

Payment integration: user adds his card to which the money is debited; the workshop attaches its account to which the money is credited. Split payments were also implemented (the admin sets the commission for the workshop, and the funds from the client are automatically divided between the admin and the workshop)
Order history, schedule of future appointments (for the user and the repair shop)
Invoices and payments section with all the information for the administrator and the workshop
Ratings and feedback for the workshop + review of these reviews by the Admins.
Notifications—mail, SMS, Real-Time in the admin panel (+ set up all the conditions for each type of notification.